Dear Sirs and Madams,
I take this opportunity yo thank each and every person who helped my being here, especially Caritas
Internationalis, World
Evangelical Alliance and Permanent Mission of the Holy See. I believe
that when conflict arise, it's necessary to focus everyone's attention
but to do all we can to stop the belligerent people. Failure to do so
can lead to deep fractures which will spread and ruin the country,
collapsing into violence, hatred and move across the borders to the
nearby countries. This is especially true about CAR. I'm only a simple
priest, and as one I feel deeply involved when I witness suffering.In
the past years I had to negotiate many times with armed rebels and
thugs....
In
the past months i saw the cruel spiral of ethnic and communties
forming. The mechanism forcing locals to flee, propagading terror has
developed so rapidly that the international community didn't respond
accordingly and arrived only too late.
Too late to help out defenceless people
and to stop those with weapons. Unfortunately the internation
acommunity arrived only to stablilize a situation imposed upon us by
several rebel groups. Let me outline briefly what's going on in CAR:
it's a country rich of human and natural resources, but one of the
poorest in the world. Its civil and military forces fled once tension
rises. its society's fabric has been lacerated by invasions and
reactions, tearing apart muslims and christians. Until Seleka rebels came there weren't such serious issues.
Hundreds
of people have been forced to leave their home, in fear of violence,
plundering and weapons against them and cannot go back, so there's a
huge negative impact on local economy of course, worsening of plagues
such AIDS and malaria, malnutrition, stopping of education, uprising of
soldier-kids, rapes etcetera. This conflict in such remote corner of
Africa took too long to get some attention from the International
community.
Actually
we could have predicted it, few saw and tried to prevent and contrast
this crises. these people are the religious leaders, since December 2012
understood what was going on and began their work against the
war. Catholics, protestants and Muslims formed a inter-religious
platform, to think things over together and then travel across the
country reporting violences and warning about the possible risks.
this
reached several areas of the country. All over christians and muslims
met together to help out women and men working for peace. some were spontaneous (Bossemptélé, Bozoum), some more organised (Bouar Bocaranga, Bossangoa...).
this explains how eventually, thousands of muslims eventually took shelter in christians communities (come Carnot, Baoro, Boali Yaloke, Bangui ...)
among
the crisis Bozoum stands out as a peculiar case, demonstrating how to
face conflict throughout a mediation process trying to reach a solution.
The crisis exploded in March 2013 along the arrival of Seleka rebels,
a coalition of armed rebels from Ciad, Sudan and northern CAR.
It got worse on December 6th with open clashes between Selekas and
Antibalakas, causing mass fleeing into the forest or the catholic
mission. For a couple of months 4 to 6 thousands people lived there.
This crisis has been faced with courage by
few city members: a catholic priest, a protestant pastor, two muslim
imams, the prefect secretary, a civil servant of the education ministry,
some young people and women. Basically: men and women of good will.
thei
approaching method has been based on truth, accountability and let to
mediate Seleka's violence and their eventual departure in January 2014.
Unfortunately it has been ineffective as to prevent muslim population to
leave the country. but definitely helped to limit the damages. the
first phase the attacks caused more than 130 people and burning of 1400
houses. After Selekas left there have been 2 dead. Civil society
involvement is a strategic strength of
this experience. The State has been a huge failure across the whole
territory, especially the Provinces. Bozoum's Prefect has been gon sonce
the 8th of December last, after being in his position for only 3 weeks.
We basically have no police forces, and in general they regularly left
as soon as there were rumours of possible attacks....So slowly we built a mediation committee
made of men and women of good will, trying to mediate with meetings
with Selekas, Antibalaks and populations .. this approach began in
December 2013 and after the Selekas left has been an important point for
daily meetings: every morning at 8 am they get together along with
MISCA (military african union) to analyse situation and decide on
security and other important matters.
Antibalakas are not allowed formally, so we don't recognise their authority. but are often heard if they have problems
this committee has
a free emergency number for violence and a wise board for problem
solving. this was instituted due to the lack of a formal courthouse and
to prevent armed people to administrate justice. I believe that one of
the element which led to success was a real authority (based on courage
and trust) which members of the committee demonstrated. these men and
women took risks (I myself I was smacked, stones trowed and shot at) and
have a very clear goal in mind: peace. but also these people are aware
of their dignity and of the lines not to be crossed: human dignity and
respect for anyone. I want to take a moment to highlight women's role on
this matter: they had more courage than men! This mediation process
resulted also in reopening schools in a 70 km range (that's about 50
schools and 8000 students attending) and distribution of agricultural
produce seeds with the help of ONGs.
the
military role of the African Union and MISCA has been both positive
and negative positive once they synced and contributed to our mediation
path, negative when they didn't join and on occasion left people alone
and unprotected (I had to leave my car on the bridge no to let them
leave us)
The
state role has been very weak, still is. there's a profound crisis
since many years: a country with no schools funding has a long way to
go. This crisis didn't begin in 2012: it was a results of numerous
unresolved issues and errors. If we are to get out of it we need to face
a deep change about democracy, corruption, education and justice and
the International Community role is essential. A country as poor as this
one, with few inhabitants and lots of natural resources can easily fall
prey of closer nations, and recent events show CAR as possible junction
for terrorism and fundamentalism: Boko Haram e Al-Qaeda are getting closer and closer.
Deciding upon UN intervention in April and begin it in September is too long a timeframe to have.
Thanks to the international helps in CAR but we all must hurry, and do better and do more!
So
far there haven't been making any difference anyway: no real
disarmament has occured and the split of this country is a reality. In
my humble opinion we need more listening: to higher levels (presidents
and governments) but more importantly to everyone involved locally: a
bunch of men and women managed the destruction in Bozoum. Other as the
Bangui Archibishop Dieudonné
Nzapalainga, Imam and Pastor Kobine Layama Guerékoyamé are travelling
across the nation with their religious platform. It would be very useful
to listen and support their work.
Furthermore
I believe it's important not to forget media and internet: they
represent a unique instrument for news and information. Through mails,
blog and social networks we formed precious links which can help make a
difference.
Finally
to conclude I'd like to share what I feel. I often wonder: what are we
in need of? Money? no. Although it's extremely important due to
countless necessities of the population and to grant them humanitarian
help. More security forces? perhaps.
they
could grant us safety for now, but it's a temporary solution. So i
think the most important thing is the core reconstruction: schools,
education, training, information. And skills. There are many good
hearted people but good intentions are often not enough! We need to know
of more experiences, to help us grow in better understanding what to do
next. We need to understand what brought this country into chasm, to
distinguish the errors made in the past but also to analyse the
situation and to come up with ideas how to create a peaceful future.
because peace is possible.
UN institution was born after WWII because men and women understood that "it takes more courage to make peace than war "(Pope
Francis) and tried their hardest to make this dreams possible. With our
efforts, the support of men and women of good will and with God's force
we can make this possible!
Thank you for your time
